diff --git a/transformer.js b/transformer.js
index 0a972982..eda81467 100644
--- a/transformer.js
+++ b/transformer.js
@@ -37,11 +37,6 @@ const getBabelRC = (function() {
     // Let's look for the .babelrc in the first project root.
     // In the future let's look into adding a command line option to specify
     // this location.
-    //
-    // NOTE: we're not reading the project's .babelrc here. We leave it up to
-    // Babel to do that automatically and apply the transforms accordingly
-    // (which works because we pass in `filename` and `sourceFilename` to
-    // Babel when we transform).
     let projectBabelRCPath;
     if (projectRoots && projectRoots.length > 0) {
       projectBabelRCPath = path.resolve(projectRoots[0], '.babelrc');
@@ -58,6 +53,9 @@ const getBabelRC = (function() {
       // Require the babel-preset's listed in the default babel config
       babelRC.presets = babelRC.presets.map((preset) => require('babel-preset-' + preset));
       babelRC.plugins = resolvePlugins(babelRC.plugins);
+    } else {
+      // if we find a .babelrc file we tell babel to use it
+      babelRC.extends = projectBabelRCPath;
     }
 
     return babelRC;